1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cover for opening and closing an opening, which is formed in an accommodation housing.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various covers for opening and closing an opening of accommodation housings have been known. However, depending on the types of accommodation housings, a user might feel burdened when opening and closing covers. For example, in an accommodation housing, such as a glove box, which is disposed in a vehicle, a user might feel difficulty when opening and closing the accommodation housing, because it might be necessary for the user to open and close the accommodation housing in a limited space. Therefore, as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (KOKAI) No. 2-267,038, a cover has been developed, cover which enables a user to open and close a cover body with ease. In the cover disclosed in the publication, a motor is started by first applying an opening operation force or a closing operation force to the cover body manually, and the cover body is thereafter actuated to open or close by the motor. In such a cover, a user can open or close the cover body with an easy operation. Accordingly, it is possible to open or close the cover body without giving burdens to the user. In the meanwhile, however, there arises a problem that the manufacturing cost of such a cover has gone up, because motors are expensive.
On the other hand, there have been covers comprising cover bodies equipped with an urging member, such as a spring, for urging the cover bodies when opening and closing the cover bodies. The urging member is disposed to expand or contract in the opening or closing direction of the cover bodies, and is expanded or contracted to accumulate an urging force when opening or closing the cover bodies. Thus, the cover bodies are opened or closed by the accumulated urging force. However, in such conventional covers, there have been problems associated with the degrees of freedom in designing covers and accommodation housings, such as in designing the shape of cover bodies, the shape of accommodation housings, and the opening or closing direction of cover bodies, because the expanding direction or contracting direction of the urging member has limited the opening or closing direction of the cover body.